It really is difficult to see a positive path forward.
And I’d love to lay this all at the feet of Joe Manchin or Joe Biden or Kyrsten Sinema or whoever, but the elephant in the room that nobody is talking about is that there are just too many Americans that are simply terrible people.
In any sane country people like Joe Biden would be labeled pretty right-wing. And people like Mitch McConnell would be labeled ethnofascist. And I’m not even sure if Mitch is to the right of the median R congressman right now.
Over a third of this country actively wants the Republican brand of fascism. I’m really not sure what the solution to that is.
1860’s it was fight to the death, we’re too lazy for that and it’s too complicated to breakup since it’s not state by state so it’s a lot of running out the clock and hoping not to have to actually do anything. R’s a bit of this too outside of picking here and there voting restrictions so there’s no sweat on the election. So it’s going to be awkward for awhile
worse if R’s get another trifecta but maybe they’ll do what they did last time and mostly waste it. Everyone likes to do that.
But I mean that pretty much is it. When it is time to kill the filibuster for SCOTUS, GOP falls in line. When it is time to kill the filibuster for voting rights…um…um…
I’m not the first on this board to say this, but the reality is our democracy (if it ever existed) has been thoroughly supplanted by a corporate oligarchy, and it’s been this way for a while. The politics is just window dressing. The new twist is the realization that they don’t have to give as much as they thought to maintain power, especially if they can keep half the country in a frothy, racist rage. Yes, it will inevitably get worse. Power tends to concentrate absent violent revolutions. The only hope I have left is that I can continue getting enough scraps to live comfortably, even though I realize a lot of people already don’t.
I’m not sure the supplanting is complete. Does the corporate oligarchy want these things:
– more guns
– no abortions
– persecution of LGBTQ people
I think most probably don’t give a fuck as long as the money is flowing, but if they had to choose, they would probably choose the liberal side of them. The problem is they need to embrace the other side of these issues to get the policies they want. If they had thoroughly supplanted everything they wouldn’t have to pander to the MAGA folk to get the votes they need to do the shit they want to do.
It didn’t. I think the collective outlook would be a lot better if people compared our current moment to actual American history rather than an idealized version of something that we’ve never even been close to.
Yeah I think Trumpism has been a bridge too far for the corporate oligarchy because the polarization makes it harder to sell more widgets. The performative woke inclusion stuff is what companies absolutely love and would prefer that type of messaging not be so politicized so that they can encourage everyone from all walks of life to buy their shit.
The idea that the MAGA GOP exists to pursue corporate interests seems only partially true, especially compared to like any other recent iteration of either party
The problem is that American conservative propaganda on this stuff became so strong when it was amplified by Facebook that it turned into a religion, and a religion with a large following of fervent, ignorant followers is prone to explode out of control. They wanted to create a reliable base of people that votes against their own interests (and they did) but they also accidentally created American ISIS.
Doesn’t really apply to me but I don’t have kids so I don’t mind dying for it. I kind of have a hero fantasy anyways so dying trying to save democracy sounds pretty cool
In hindsight we should have been more worried when we saw social media amplifying the wackosphere. It was only a matter of time before the right wing grift machine saw the opportunity and harnessed it.
Perhaps ironically, perhaps not, but these social media victims are also just customers, but they think they are believing in something rule. It is literally no efferent than being a Harry Potter stan.
A big missed canary in the coal mine was that lady at that McCain event that went off on derposhere “Obama is an Arab!” stuff. The reaction was mostly “boy that lady was whacko” and “let’s all give McCain a big standing ovation”. We really should have been asking:
How many people out there think what she thinks?
Why do they think that?
What happens if the Rs nominate someone who fans that flame instead of dousing it?
